FAQs About LIMS

History of food and beverage testing and regulation The history of laboratory-based food and beverage tasting is scattered, with little being documented about foodborne illness and food safety until the nineteenth century. However, with a better understanding of bacteria and their relationship to disease, more was being said about the…

Base LIMS requirements for food and beverage labs The use of LIMS in food and beverage R&D, production, and quality labs is not a new concept [1], though many such labs today find themselves still using manual, paper-based methods. Given the regulatory demands for providing rapid proof of traceable product movement…

Food and beverage labs and the LAAF program The Food Safety Modernization ACT (FSMA) was signed into law in January 2011, giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broader authority to regulate how the country’s food supply is grown, harvested, and processed. The FSMA was amended in December 2021…

International food and beverage safety through regulatory-driven operational standardization When discussing the landscape of food and beverage safety and it regulation, it’s difficult not to mention standards like ISO 22000 and ISO/IEC 17025. Most competitive and well-established food and beverage companies will already be accredited to the ISO 22000:2018 standard,…

LIMS and quality management In order to be most successful—while meeting the requirements of standards and regulatory pressures—a laboratory must focus on a culture of quality.[1] A quality management system (QMS) is one means for a laboratory to put additional focus on quality, and ISO/IEC 17025:2017—at least in spirit—promotes the adoption…

ISO/IEC 17025: Supporting quality management in the lab ISO/IEC 17025:2017 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories is an internationally recognized standard that places requirements on testing, calibration, and sampling laboratories to demonstrate “the competence, impartiality, and consistent operation” of their business activities.[1] At its core, the standard places a…

Base LIMS requirements for construction and engineering labs Like many other industries dealing with large amounts of scientific data and a wide variety of test methods, construction and engineering laboratories often turn to laboratory information management systems (LIMS) to not only better manage the data but also manage a wide…

Standardized test methods used by construction and engineering laboratories Like other materials testing labs, well-run construction and engineering labs are dependent on standard-based analytical methods developed with the input of the international community. The use of those standardized test methods may be mandated as part of the lab’s efforts towards…

Construction materials and geotechnical testing: The basics Like any other manufactured materials, construction materials such as fasteners, lumber, and adhesives have a certain level of expectation attached to them, that they will be safe to use, of good quality, and will perform in the way advertised by the manufacturer. And…

Construction and geotechnical testing From concrete and asphalt to construction site substrates like clay and rock, the proper quality and characterization of construction and engineering materials is critical to a construction project’s long-term success. The importance of perfecting and using quality construction materials dates back millennia, for example to the…